For Your Weekend Eating Pleasure

This...might be awesome. From Serious Eats, the Aussie burger, a burger topped with cheese, fried egg, avocado, and roasted beets:

BURGER!

The author actually puts avocado on in place of BACON. Very, very few things in my world can ever be used in place of BACON. In fact, avocado might be the *only* thing you could replace bacon with in a recipe that would not incur my wrath. But I think this burger would work either way (or with both - what the hell?)

Also, personally I can take or leave an egg on top of a burger -- I've never felt that it adds anything. So leave that off. But beets? That is a potentially brilliant topping. As the author says, "Especially counterpoint to a crispy, griddled, well-salted patty, the sweet earthiness of a roasted beet works wonderfully."

So: burger with cheese, BACON and/or avocado, and roasted beets (on a Martin's potato roll, which is absolutely the best bun option). Potential genius. Must make sure to buy beets at the market tomorrow morning.

Last Night's Dinner: Asparagus & Mint Frittata

Asparagus & mint frittata with a mixed
salad (romaine, spinach, dandelion)

Week four of the "Cookbook a Week" project was a frittata. As the cookbook (Best Recipe) points out, frittata is more forgiving than an omelete, so it's perfect for me.

(Week three was a side dish of braised Swiss chard in a cream sauce with Indian spices, and it was very tasty, but also very unphotogenic.)

This one is pretty easy -- brown the onions (the recipe called for shallots but just like last time the P.O.S. grocery store in Middletown didn't have them) over medium heat in EVOO, add blanched asparagus, mint & parsley. Pour in six lighty-beaten eggs and some parmesan cheese and cook until almost set, maneuvering the pan so that all the egg has a chance to cook a bit.

Then sprinkle some more parm on it and put it in a 350-degree oven for 3-4 minutes, until the top is just set. Remove from over, flip over onto serving plate, garnish with some parsley, salt and pepper, and serve. It's equally good hot, at room temperature, or cold, which made it an excellent choice for last night. I served some of it hot to Zosia, ate some of it at room temperature once I had the girls' dinners prepared, and then DJo had some cold when she got home.

This one is definitely going into heavy rotation. I'm not breaking any new ground here; I'm sure those of you who cook regularly already know how easy a frittata is. It will also support an infinite variety of ingredients, so whatever leftover veggies are in the fridge will probably find their way in. Oh, and I bet it would be really good with BACON in it (though really, what wouldn't?).


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Listening to: Everclear - Santa Monica

Bad (Soup and) Salad

Saturday night we went out to dinner and a movie. Well, originally it was just supposed to be a movie, until we found out that the movie we wanted to see, No Country For Old Men, wasn't actually playing at time that Movies.com and Yahoo Movies told us it was. It's not very often that the Internet let me down, but it certainly did this time.

Luckily our babysitter was willing to stay until midnight instead of 10:00, so we decided we'd go see the movie in E-Town and grab some dinner first. We decided to walk down to Blue Bistro, a neighborhood spot which had replaced the late, lamented Jackie Blue. We had had a bad experience last fall (poor service, food took forever, wasn't hot when it arrived) but decided we'd give them another shot because we really, really want to like a restaurant that's walking distance from our house.

We had decided we'd go with simpler fare the second time around, so we sat at the bar and ordered a cheeseburger (me) and a steak salad & French onion soup (DJo). Things started off nicely -- the bartender was very friendly and poured us nice glasses of wine. After a little while DJo's soup came, which was very tasty until she discovered a big hunk of plastic in it.

We let the bartender know and he was properly apologetic. He took the soup away, told the kitchen to 86 the soup for the rest of the night, and comped our entire meal (which was more than we expected and was excellent customer service).

About a half-hour later, we started wondering where the rest of our food was. How long does it take to put together a burger and a steak salad, especially in a restaurant that isn't full? Ten minutes later the bartender looked over at the service counter and said, "is that my steak salad and burger there"? Apparently our order had come up and no one had told him. Bad kitchen service.

Then we got the food. My burger was a) lukewarm and b) rare. I ordered it medium-rare, but this was definitely not that. But, at least it was edible, which was more than can be said for DJo's steak salad, which was a) cool and b) mostly raw. Seriously, she was only able to eat able three bites of the steak, since the majority of it was just plain uncooked.

We considered our options. We'd already been comped, so it really wasn't worth complaining -- the food had taken so long that if we got replacement meals we would miss our movie. So, we just ate what we could and prepared to leave, figuring that someone would probably notice the raw beef that DJo left on the plate. As we were finishing up, we overheard the waitstaff chatting amongst themselves (which is one of the reasons I like to sit at the bar) -- basic "can you get me a bottle of wine" and "can you clean something up" type stuff. But then, after one server asked another to do something, I'm pretty sure I heard her say, "and can you polish the brass on the Titanic while you're at it?"

Geez. Does the staff feel like they're working on the Titanic? Do they feel like, no matter what they do, they're being handicapped by incompetent/uncaring kitchen and management staff? Two things are especially telling -- first, the problems we had were kitchen problems, just like the last time, which was five months ago. Second, the owner was in the restaurant and didn't come over to apologize. The staff, especially the bartender, did their job well (and we tipped him well, and based on what the bill actually would have been) but the problems the restaurant has may be more than they can fix.

That's our last trip to Blue Bistro; it's a shame that they didn't turn out to be the neighborhood place we wanted, like Jackie's was before its last few months. I guess it's back to Bayou -- our friends rave about it (though we had a bad food experience there as well) -- or else maybe hope that Blue Bistro actually hits the iceberg and is replaced by something else.

(The movie, by the way, was great. And we saw it in a theatre with only five other people, so no talking. Couldn't have been better.)

A Cookbook A Week: Pan-Fried Catfish

Pan-Fried Catfish

Here is the result of week #2 of the "Cookbook a Week" project. Like I said last wee, I'm actually going with a cookbook a month, so this is the second recipe out of Best Recipe.

I wanted to do halibut or some other flat fish, but incredibly the grocery store was out of it! Must be a lent thing. Anyway, after consulting my handy pocket-sized seafood guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch I settled on catfish.

The filets were a little thicker than I would have liked, but they fried up nicely. There was only one section of one of the filets that was a little too mushy for my tastes (but was still properly cooked).

For the sauce, I did a cross between what Best Recipe says to do for fried fish (a pan sauce) and what they say to do for steamed fish (a much lighter sauce). It was basically butter, wine, garlic, cilantro and capers. Yummy.

On the side, a basic green salad (courtesty of DJo). We had no white wine so we drank the Australian shiraz/cab blend which has become our house wine.

A Cookbook A Week: Chicken Parmesan

The chicken bowl was just a happy accident.

So one of my goals this year is to become more useful in the kitchen. With Daryl working full-time I need to take some of the dinner work off her plate (so to speak), and so I'm now responsible for at least one dinner every week.

For the last few months, my efforts have been rather hit-or-miss: pasta with sauce, hot dogs, etc. I tried to get away with my night also being take-out night, but that's not so good since take-out night is another night off for Daryl as well. So I was trying to figure out a way to go about getting better in the kitchen when some friends on The Well decided to start a "Cookbook-A-Week" project, wherein they pick a different cookbook off their shelves each week and cook something from it.

This sort of arbitrary framework can serve me well. This way I have to go through each cookbook, find a recipe, make sure I get to the store to buy what's needed for it, etc. That means a little bit of thought will go into it and hopefully some decent meals will come out of it. Plus, I'm hoping I can end up with a handful of things I can cook regularly in the future.

Since Daryl only has 6 or 7 cookbooks, I decided I'd actually do a cookbook a month, cooking four dishes out of each one. The first one I grabbed was Cook's Illustrated's The Best Recipe, a compendium of hyper-obsessiveness in the guise of a cookbook. The Cook's Illustrated folks do things like cook creme brulee 37 different ways to determine the absolute best way to prepare it. There's not a whole lot of imagination in this cookbook; what is has is lots of staples and building blocks, theoretically prepared the best possible way.

My cooking night is going to be Wednesday, but I decided to start on Saturday since we had to cancel Daryl's birthday dinner & a movie due to child illness. I started with Chicken Parmesan. Aim high, you know? With Daryl acting as my sous chef, I managed to make my way through the entire process with aplomb (if I do say so myself), and I didn't even poison my family with raw chicken!

It wasn't difficult to make, though it was labor intensive. A few specifics -- I used panko for the coating, and I think that was a good call. It gave it a really nice light crunch. Linguini noodles held up a little better than regular spaghetti would have, and if I had done a little better job of pounding the fillets it wouldn't have taken quite as long to cook.

Still, I have to say I'm pretty damn proud of myself. It was really tasty, both for dinner and a few days later for lunch. I don't know if this will enter any sort of regular rotation, since it's a little time-consuming -- we only have about 45 min of total prep time between getting home from work before the going-to-bed routine starts -- but for weekends, special occasions, etc., I might pull it out again.

Last Night's Dinner: Pig Three Ways

Daryl got back in the kitchen and did some real cooking this weekend for the first time in a few weeks. Since she started working again most dinners have simply been what she & I can get on the table in between the time when we both get home & the time the kids go to bed, and I know she's felt like it's just been "preparing food" instead of actually "cooking."

So yesterday she put her considerable talents to work and ended up with:

* Pork roast with (global flavor blast alert!) cumin & bottarga salt dry rub
* Savory grits with bacon
* Brussels sprout hash

Unsurprisingly, it was fantastic. The pork roast came from M&B Fairview Farm, a central PA farm that raises and butchers heritage pigs (among lots of other tasty animals), and we could taste the difference. Daryl said, "this tastes like the pork I ate when I was a kid," and she was right. It was intensely flavorful, and very juicy, even after being cooked to nearly 170 degrees.

The grits were a perfect complement to the pork. I actually had grits for the first time ever this summer, and my opinion of them (that they're awesome) has not yet changed. The hash of Brussels sprouts and sweet onion was cooked in a bit of the BACON fat, making this a pork-three-ways dinner. It was a perfect meal for a cold, gray, sliding-into-winter day and it made Daryl happy, which is an excellent bonus.

Killing Me Tastily

The more articles I read breathlessly reciting the vital statistics of Hardee's new Country Breakfast Burrito (60 grams of fat! 920 calories!), the louder the voice in my head gets, saying "buy one!"



Come on! Bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, sausage gravy, and not one but two omelettes. What's not to love? And, since it gives you half of your day's recommended calorie intake in one easy-to-hold meal, why not combine it with a Denny's American Classic Dinner? That way you can get all the calories you need in two sittings, leaving you plenty of time to do other things, like sit in the waiting room at the local walk-in angioplasty clinic.

The thing is, though, I bet it tastes great. And by the way:

* 16,300 Google search hits for "Country Breakfast Burrito"
* 1,146 Google blog search hits for "Country Breakfast Burrito"
* 283 Google news search hits for "Country Breakfast Burrito"

My compliments to the Hardee's PR team for a job well done.

Restaurant Review: Morimoto, Philadelphia PA

Our anniversary was earlier this month (six years! Holy crap!) and we celebrated by ditching the kids and getting loaded. We did other things, too, like visit the Please Touch Museum, and take Zo to a friend's house to watch the Kipona fireworks, but the centerpiece was the part where we took the train into downtown Philly and ate fantastic food and drank amazing wine, secure in the knowledge that our girls were in the very capable hands of Daryl's aunt & uncle and their three girls.

We went to Morimoto for our anniversary last year, too, and it was great. The only bummer was that Daryl was pregnant -- not a bummer in itself, of course, but it precluded her from eating raw fish or drinking alcohol, which meant her Morimoto experience was severely curtailed. So we decided to go back so we could do it right this time.

Morimoto

I continue to be impressed by the space the restaurant is in. After walking through the frosted front doors off the mean streets of Philly, you quickly feel like you've entered a different world. The dining room is a single, open room with a sushi bar at the back of it. The ceiling is light wood slats, and it isn't flat, it has a bit of an undulation in it. The walls are covered with what looks like cast fiberglass, also in a wave/abstract art pattern. All the lighting is recessed and/or behind the fiberglass panels, so it's all indirect. The tables (the 4- & 6-tops in the middle of the room) are separated by Lucite dividers with lights in them that slowly change color over the course of the evening. The overall effect is one of being underwater, but in a good way. The bar, by the way, is upstairs at one end, and you can sit and look out over the entire floor while you enjoy your pre-dinner drink.

We didn't do that this year, since we were running a little late (what else is new?), so we immediately sat down, ordered martinis, and checked out the menu. We didn't look for long, though, because we had pretty much decided to go with the omakase, which is the Japanese word for "entrust" and is basically Morimoto's "let us feed you" option. The only choice we had to make was which price level to go with, and we went the Goldilocks route, opting not for the cheapest or the most expensive but trusting that the one in the middle would be just right, and it was. For good measure (and due to the fact that we were taking the train home) we went for the mid-range wine omakase as well -- a glass of wine or sake matched to each course.

The meal started with a little amuse bouche. Since Daryl got the same thing I got when we were there last year, I'll just re-print what I wrote then:

The first course was a hamachi tartare, with bits of crunchy onion mixed into it, served with Osetra caviar, mirin, and wasabi, with a yamamomo (tiny red fruit). It was AMAZING -- creamy, a little crunchy, salty, sweet, a perfect combination.

My first course was a small glass of gazpacho with fresh horseradish and an oyster. I think that in this day & age it takes a pretty damn good soup to rise above the cliche of "chilled soup served in a cocktail glass for first course," and this one did. Both our dishes came with a glass of Moet & Chandon White Star NV champagne.

Daryl's second course was very similar to what I had had last year -- last year our server called it the "hot oil" course, but if I remember correctly he was sort of a tool, so let's call it a crudo of hamachi, served on microgreens with fresh cilantro and chili oil. Very tasty, as was my diced scallop, liberally seasoned with black pepper, topped with parmesan cheese, and grilled. Fish and dairy is a tough combo to pull off, but this was excellent.

The wines with this course were fascinating. My 2006 Chateau de la Vielle Tour Bordeaux Blanc was a bit boring in the glass but absolutely came alive when paired with the scallop. Daryl was served a 2006 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, and when the sommelier brought it, he warned her to expect "notes of green pepper and jalapeno." We had never heard a wine described this way and we were skeptical, but she drank it and damned if it didn't have notes of green pepper and jalapeno! Unsurprisngly it worked very well with her dish. Hats off to the sommelier for that pairing.

Third course is where they appeared to have made the largest adjustment over the last year, and it paid off. Daryl's yellowtail looked and tasted great -- the only thing I remember about it (the wines were starting to take their toll) was that it had some bonito flake on it; Daryl's notes refer to it as "fancy yellowtail," which sounds about right, and it was paired with a 1999 Domaine Joseph Matrot Meursault. My dish was Japanese tilefish in a brown butter sauce with green peppers with a fantastic glass of 2006 Keller Estates "Oro de Plata" Chardonnay. This is about the point in the meal where I started to run out of new ways to say "delicious" or "perfect."

On to fourth course: halibut with crab and seaweed and a 2005 Michel Picard Vouvray Chenin Blanc for her; king salmon cooked on a cedar plank with a side of oshitashi for me, along with a cup of Morimoto's own Junmai Daiginjo sake.

Finally we got to the main course. I still remember the Kobe beef and Japanese sweet potato dies I got last year, and was hoping one of us would get that this year. We didn't, but what we got instead was no disappointment. Daryl got lamb in a molasses reduction. All her notes say is "LAMB!" probably due to a combination of the food and an evening's worth of wine. Speaking of which, she got a 2004 Estancia Syrah; pretty impressive for an American wine to be the match for this dish.

My dish was Peking duck done two ways. I had Peking duck in Peking (OK, Beijing) a few years ago and even putting aside that I didn't have sliced liver on my plate this time, and was not expected to drink the liquor that smelled like old socks, Morimot's was way better. It was minimalist duck, just two small pieces, but the slice of breat had all the flavor of the entire breast, and the same was true to the dark meat. It was accompanied by a glass of 2005 Wildekrans Pinotage, which was simply one of the best glasses of wine I have ever had in my life. It was full-bodied, with huge lingering fruit notes. I can envision this becoming a regular in our wine rotation, if I could only find a place to buy it! If you get a chance you should definitely pick it up.

The meal wrapped up with a sushi course (accompanied by a Fukumiysuya Junmai sake) and a dessert (with a Grahams' 10 Year Tawny Port) but truth be told I don't even remember much about them. This meal was all about the main courses and for the second year in a row we were blown away by the food (and this year the service was much, much better as well). I don't know if we'll go back again next year -- we might try to branch out a bit -- but everything served to us makes me want to eat there as often as our bank account allows (which is almost never) and also to recommend Morimoto to anyone in Philly who wants a fantastic seafood-based dining experience.

Road Food: Barbeque and Beyond in Winston-Salem, Part Two

After a great meal at Lexington Barbeque on Thursday night, I was looking forward to trying a few other places. First up on Friday was lunch at Sweet Potatoes, a little bistro in the Arts District, which was, conveniently, only a block from the Convention Center. They were packed at lunchtime but I sat at the bar and had an absolutely fantastic steak sandwich with blue cheese dressing, and the Best. Sweet Potato Fries. Ever. Crispy and nicely salted on the outside, creamy on the inside. They were heavenly.

Unfortunately my second barbeque experience was totally different from the first. First of all my phone totally LIED TO ME and Don's Barbeque was nowhere near my hotel, as it had claimed. Not a big deal, it just meant I had to drive out to the edge of town. I actually welcomed the opportunity to explore a little bit more of the city, as otherwise I was pretty much seeing my hotel by the Interstate and the two blocks around the convention center.

Don's is apparently one of the only Western-style places in Winston-Salem, which is why I decided to give it a try. Alas, it wasn't that great, but I don't know if that's because I don't like Western-style (more ketchup in sauce, therefore sweeter & wetter) as much or if it just wasn't very good. Either way, it was a let-down, although I will point out that even "not very good" barbeque is still really really good, especially when consumed with an ice-cold mass-produced domestic beer.

On Saturday, after another fantastic lunch at Sweet Potatoes (summer

Sweet Potatoes

sausage with fried onions & corn relish, cup of three-cheese bacon soup, and seriously you have to eat at this place any time you're anywhere near The Triad), I packed up the truck and headed home. First, though, I had to make one more barbeque stop, this time at Clark's in Kernersville. I got a pound of coarse chopped to bring home, since it had been made clear to me that I wouldn't be welcome back in my home without it.

I was so pleasantly full from my lunch that I didn't even break into it until I was home, and then it was just to have a couple of bites. But the next day we made ourselves some sandwiches with the 'que and the barbeque slaw, which was their vinegar-based cole slaw with some of their barbeque sauce mixed in.

Clark's was, in my opinion, even better than Lexington Barbeque. Their coarse-chopped was actually big chunks of shoulder, and the tenderness of the meat was perfectly matched to the tanginess of the sauce. The meat benefitted from a night spent marinating, and once we had piled the barbeque slaw on top, it made for a perfect sandwich. Sorry, no pictures, I ate it all before I thought to grab the camera.

I didn't get a chance to try Little Richard's, and I did see a sign for an Eastern-style barbeque place, but I'll be back in W-S in January and both of those places (along with the upscale restaurant that the owners of Sweet Potatoes are apparently opening) and already on my "to eat" list.

Road Food: Barbeque and Beyond in Winston-Salem

So here I am sitting in a hotel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I'm down here for a few days on business, attending the South Atlantic Fire Exposition.



This was a long drive for what is going to be, I expect, a pretty boring show, so I was not too excited about going. I got a little more excited, however, when I learned about something called the North Carolina Barbeque Society's Historic Barbeque Trail. When it became apparent that my path would be crossing the trail, I suddenly got a little more interested in my first-ever trip to the Tarheel State.

So I spent a little time poking around on Chowhound, looking for barbeque recommendations in W-S and the surrounding area. Also, since I would be driving for seven hours to get here, I looked for recommendations in the towns along I-81 and US-202, and I was not disappointed.

I stopped off for lunch in Staunton, VA, at Mrs. Rowe's.

Mrs. Rowe's

This restaurant has been around for 60 years, specializing in fried chicken. So of course that's what I had, along with some mac & cheese and greens. The restaurant itself felt like a Shoney's on the side of any highway anywhere in America, but don't be fooled -- the fried chicken is something special. Juicy and flavorful, with a light coating that didn't overpower the chicken. I wasn't particularly impressed with the sides, but the excellence of the chicken more than made up for that.

Once I arrived in W-S and checked into my hotel, my thoughts turned immediately to BARBEQUE. There are, of course, several difference schools of barbeque in America: Kansas City, Texas, Memphis, etc. I had no idea that North Carolina alone had three different styles, or that I was in the home of one (Lexington-style) that I had never heard of. Since I'm barbeque-agnostic (I love 'em all), I was excited to check out a new style, so I drove down to the city of Lexington to try the pork shoulder at Lexington Barbeque (aka Honey Monk's). This was, based on the reviews at Chowhound, the acknowledged leader in this particular style, which calls for smoked shoulder only, with a thin, vinegar-based sauce with no ketchup whatsoever.

The place was packed on a Thursday at 6:00, which seemed like a good sign. We sat down and ordered the basics: coarse-chopped outside brown, cole slaw, hush puppies, beans, and a sweet tea.

This was among the best barbeque I've ever had. It was a little surprising upon first bite to not be getting any ketchupy sweetness (and, truth be told, I do like KC-style

Lexington Barbeque

the best), but the meat was perfect. Not so cooked that it was falling apart, it put up a bit of resistance as you chewed it but gave up terrific smoked flavor while doing so. Outside brown is totally the way to go -- the additional smokiness and slight caramelization was fantastic, and the thin sauce imparted a vinegary zip and just the slightest bit of heat from the red pepper flakes. The sides were also great; the cole slaw (vinegar-based, no mayo, just like DJo makes it) carried over the flavors of the sauce, the hush puppies were light & airy, and the beans were smoky & sweet and were improved by a spot of (Texas-style) barbeque sauce.

Given the preponderance of barbeque joints littered throughout Winston-Salem, I was skeptical of the need to drive 20 miles to go to a particular joint, but rest assured the additional effort was worth it. I think any time you're within 50 miles of Lexington you are required to make the drive to Honey Monk's. You will not be disappointed.

Mrs. Rowe's
74 Hwy 250 (Rowe Rd)
(At the junction of I-64 and I-81)
Staunton VA

Lexington Barbeque #1
10 Hwy 29 70 S (Mocksville Rd)
(Just off old Hwy 85)
Lexington VA

Restaurant Review: Fish On, Lewes DE

Did you miss us? We got back on Saturday night from out wonderful week in Lewes, spent hanging out at the beach, walking into town to get ice cream, and doing all the fun things that families do on vacation. Thanks to our brand new super-cheap video camera, I'll have a bunch of videos to post soon, but while I get all that together here's a review of the dinner we had at Fish On:

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We ate in on our vacation for almost every meal, but we did go out twice, once for brunch and once for dinner. Both times, I had GRITS, which might be my new favorite food.

The dinner was fabulous. It was at a restaurant called Fish On! in Lewes,Delaware. As we usually do, we went over as soon as they opened, the better to avoid inflicting our children on other diners. The restaurant was very kid friendly (as it should be in a vacation town) -- there were probably five or six other families there and we were very pleasantly surprised with the kids' menu, which included salmon, tuna, and crab cakes along with the typical chicken fingers & whatnot. Zo had the crab cake, which came with both french fries and green beans, and afforded Daryl & I the chance to try the crab cake (tasty!) without having to order it ourselves, freeing us up
to try other things.

We started out our dinner with cocktails, like actual adults -- Daryl had a Dark & Stormy, and I had a Martini, extra-dry, up, with olives. It came with three olives, immediately putting me in a good mood. We had checked out the menu online beforehand and were pretty sure what we were going to get, but the specials included a cream of crab soup with jalapenos, so I got that instead of the Delaware crab soup, which Daryl got. Both soups were excellent -- they included nice juicy pieces of crab and mine had just the slightest jalapeno kick at the back of the throat.

For starters, Daryl ordered chilled peel & eat shrimp with cocktail sauce. A basic starter, very nicely done. The shrimp were cooked perfectly and the cocktail sauce contained lots of fresh horseradish. I thought about ordering the pan-roasted mussels with tomato compote, chorizo & jalapeno, but I was on a crab kick so I went with the hot crab dip with jack cheese, served with homemade kettle chips. Best. Bar food. Ever.

Our main courses continued in the same vein as our first chices -- Daryl stayed with a red-sauce meal by ordering the Lewes seafood stew, which was a tomato broth chock-full of shrimp, mussels, tuna, halibut, and other various fishes and shellfishes. It wasn't as good as Phil's cioppino, but what is? It was a very nicely balanced fish stew, and they certainly didn't skimp on the seafood (though I was surprised that the soup didn't include any crab).

I ordered the item which had caught my eye when we were browsing menus to decided where to eat: grilled shrimp & chorizo over spicy jack grits. Yum. The grits were nice and creamy (making my dinner a cream-based trifecta), with enough jalapeno to make you notice, without overpowering the other flavors. There were only 5 or 6 small slices of chorizo, but that was enough to add an excellent accent to the meal, and the shrimp were grilled to perfection, juicy and flavorful.

Overall, an excellent meal. Next time you're on the Delaware coast, it's certainly worth a trip to the Villages at Five Points to eat at Fish On.

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Listening to: Spoon - Don't You Evah via FoxyTunes

Nothing To Get Hung About

Looking for something to do this weekend? What if I told you there were places you could go which would let you do the sort of backbreaking labor that falls into the "illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans don't want to do" category? Is that something you might be interested in?

Last Saturday the famiy loaded into the minivan and headed to Loysville, where Spiral Path Farm was holding its annual pick-your-own-strawberries weekend. We lurrve Spiral Path; they're an organic farm that has a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program -- you pay an annual fee and every week from May to October they deliver baskets of freshly picked organic to drop-off sites throughout the area. It's great to eat tomatoes, lettuce, peas, etc. that were picked the day before, and in this age of increased awareness about farming techniques and food miles I love knowing that my food was grown less than an hour away.

(By the way, apropos of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Spiral Path hipped us to Jujo Acres, who deliver organic and free-range beef and other meats. It's all good.)

So anyway we drove out to Loysville, ready to pick our allotted two gallons of strawberries. It was a beautful day, sunny, with a light breeze, and when we arrived the fields were already full of other city dwellers:



We quickly got to work; I took charge of Zosia while Daryl got back in touch with her Polish peasant roots, picking berries with Genevieve sleeping (and occasionally screaming) in the sling:



After an hour or so, we had our berries and were ready to head home. After some hardcore hulling and culling, we had the loot, ready for consumption in pies, ice cream, or as-is:



One of the main reasons we wanted to do this was to start introducing Zosia to the idea of where food comes from. It's an easy thing to not think about; you go to the market or grocery store or restaurant and get your food, and it's easy to forget what went in to getting it to that point. I don't want my kids to think that food comes from "the store," and we're lucky enough to live in a place where the actual production locations of so many foods are so close by.

Plus we wanted to get out in the fresh air, and give Zo something fun to do. I think she enjoyed it, as you can see from this shot:



Want to go strawberry picking yourself this weekend? Learn everything you need to know, including locations and how to do it, at PickYourOwn.org.

Enjoy!

Sugar Free MC

Yesterday's two-Coke stomachache, combined with a return to the gym last week and several months of crashing on the couch at about 6:00 PM every day has spurred me into a little action on the sugar front. So we'll call today Day One of the low-to-no sugar era.

A little background -- I've always had a sweet tooth, my whole life. I remember going to the corner store with my friend Jay as a kid and buying enough Lik-M-Aid, Spree, and Swedish Fish (they were a penny apiece so you could just take your change and convert it into fish) to last all day long, or going to my grandma's house and being thrilled by the bowls of hard candy just sitting on the living room table, there for the taking. It was awesome.


Mmm...candy. Note: "candy mouth" is an NSFW search on Google images. Who knew?

I didn't really get any candy or sweets at home, and I'm unsure if that prohibition led to my sweet tooth, or if not having candy at home kept me from a life of obesity and dental agony. As it was I never had a cavity until I went away to college and could indulge as often as I liked, and while my candy consumption dipped as my consumption of other substances, legal and otherwise, increased, once I hit my mid 20's I was rarely without some Jolly Ranchers in my pocket (note: not a euphemism).

Recently it's been sour worms or Sweet Tarts, thought really I'll try just about any candy on the sour axis, even though most turn out to be nothing more than a normal piece of candy with a bit of malic acid dusted on it (one exception: Sour Skittles, which tear up the roof of my mouth in a most excellent way). Even as I essentially quit drinking soda with sugar in it two years ago I found myself unable to stop eating candy, the one last source of vast numbers of empty calories and untold quantities of evil, evil high fructose corn syrup. So help me, I was turning into a corn person. My current auctorial hero (and the inspiration for the name of this blog), Michael Pollan, would be so disappointed.

So it was with a heavy heart and a last gorging on Fla-Vor-Ices last night that I decided I would try, once again, to cut out the processed sugar from my diet. Since so much of the appeal is an oral fixation (and since I quite smoking years ago), I went to the store this morning, determined to try every candy-substitute that might keep my mouth occupied. Today's contestants and their efficacy:

* David Sunflower Seeds (Original) -- a classic, and very satisfying. Also inexpensive and long-lasting. I foresee many of these in my future, though I'll need to get used to the dry mouth and thirst brought on by so much salt. Luckily I also had...

* Water (two bottles worth) -- not really a substitute for the oral fixation side of things, but if any of the candy craving has to do with actual hunger, filling up my stomach with cool, crisp, satisfying water should help a but.

* Orbitz Lemon-Lime Sugar-Free Gum -- Disappointing. Carries just the faintest hint of "citrus" flavor and even cramming four pieces in my mouth at a time didn't give me the citric/malic/fumaric acid hit I craved. It does give me something to do with my mouth, though. I think I still have a bunch of Trident at home from the last time I tried to do this; I'll have to dig it out.

So here I am, one day in and already wanting, nay, needing to pick up a few Charms Blow Pops for the drive home. Lord, beer me strength.

The End Of An Era

Well, actually the era probably ended years ago, but I'm just discovering it now. I had a Coke with lunch, and about an hour later decided I'd have another one (how's that cutting-down-on-sugar thing going, Christian?). I got about halfway through it and had to stop due to a stomachache and general queasy feeling.

Although I eat a lot of candy, I switched to sugar-free sodas a while ago (I'm partial to Coke Zero, though I drink my share of Caffeine Free Diet Coke, aka Double-Fake Coke, as well) and rarely drink soda with sugar (or, more accurately, high fructose corn syrup) in it. So I don't know exactly what I was thinking. I do know that what I really need right now is a bottle of water and a nap.

Here's some excellent related reading: What Happens To Your Body If You Drink a Coke Right Now.

Broad Street Market Information

When I was at the market last weekend, I noticed that they finally have a directory available, listing all of the shops, their locations, and their phone numbers. All this information is available on their website, but it's in a little tiny window and buried down two levels into the site, and who needs that?

In the interest of ease-of-use, here is a list of all the shops, with phone numbers and, in some cases, mini-reviews of each. If you'd like to add your two cents about the stores, email me at ruz AT cruzich.com and I'll add to this post.



STONE MARKET (West Building)

From West to East:

Golden Gate: 233-3677. Vietnamese food, including pho soup.

Dessert First: 448-1834. European-style pastries and desserts.

Tep's Fresh Seafood: 232-4065. Fresh and prepared fish and seafood.

The Bangkok Kitchen: 395-8079. Thai food.

Capital Box Lunch: 232-9323. Cheese steaks, wraps, and salads.

P&R Baked Goods: 350-5327. Homemade pound cakes and sweet potato pie.

Curry In A Hurry: 233-1202. Indian food.

Luna Pastel: 236-2121. All-organic breakfast, lunch and desserts.

The Corner Rotisserie: 364-6941. Greek food: gyros, baklava, Greek salad, soup.

BRICK MARKET (East Building)

From West to East:

Han's Frozen Custard: 645-9332. Homemade frozen custard.

Lebanon Valley Meats: 236-2518. Fresh and smoked meats.

Sinful Sweets: 238-4762. Freshly prepared desserts, savory bakery items, candies.

Lee's Produce: 233-1394. Fresh produce and fruits.

Brandt Farms: 238-4762. Flowers, plants, seasonal homegrown produce and fruits.

Stoltzfus Pretzels: 909-6904. Soft pretzels, pretzel rolls, lemonade, candied apples.

J.W. Seafood: 238-4762. Fresh seafood.

Stoltzfus Candies: 909-6904. Asher's Chocolates, premium nuts, old-style candies.

Kocevar Farms: Local fruits and vegetables, plants, flowers.

Caiti-Jo's Coffee: 267-825-1985. Fresh ground coffee, cappuccino, and smoothies.

Kabob House: 236-7120. Kabobs.

Market Gift Shop: 315-2787. Jewelry, ceramics, crystal, engraving.

The Culinary Garden: 233-8598. Bagels, sausage, salads, meats.

Hummer's Meats & Cheeses: 232-4150. Fresh and smoked meats, deli meats, cheeses.

L&L Country Meats: 236-3668. Country meats, sausages, prepared foods.

Nude Food: 236-8499. All natural dried fruits, nuts, spices, juice/soup bar, bread, tea, organic foods.

Beiler's Ice Cream: 234-7719. Hand-dipped ice cream, shakes, smoothies, dairy products.

Creations Of Family Muhammad: 234-7724. African cloth, clothing, incense, books.

Fisher's Donuts: 232-3101. Fresh baked donuts, desserts, soups.

Beiler's Poultry: 234-7719. BBQ chicken, ribs, fresh chicken and turkey products.

Fisher's Deli: 232-8522. Subs, deli meats, salads, cheeses, puddings.

Garden Fresh Produce: 236-0822. Local and international fruits and produce.

Cafe George: 234-8421. Diner serving breakfast and lunch.

Passover Coke

Coke that's kosher for Passover -- made with sucrose (from beets and cane) instead of evil, evil High Fructose Corn Syrup -- is once again available in select markets.


Look for the yellow cap and stock up!

Something tells me Harrisburg isn't one of these markets, though OUKosher.org does say that Baltimore-Washington and Philly both are, so maybe some has found its way here. I'm heading out this weekend to find out. Meanwhile, which of my living in a big city and shopping at stores which would stock yellow-cap Coke are going to hook me up?

And no, before you ask, Mexican Coke isn't necessarily the same thing. Not all Mexican Coke is made with cane sugar. Which is not to say I don't enjoy a good Mexican Coke when I can find one, mostly because it comes in glass bottles, but also because the mix is a little different -- a little sweeter.

Restaurescat In Pace

Do you have a favorite restaurant in the Harrisburg area? Do yourself a favor and don't tell me about it. We've lived here for less than two years and have already seen six favorites close.



* One of the first things we looked for when we moved here was good sushi. Living in the Bay Area we were spoiled, since we had multiple places to choose from, from cheap (No Name Sushi on Church Street) to expensive (Kirala in Berkeley) and everything in between. There are a couple of decent spots in Harrisburg, but the best sushi we found was at Gobo Restaurant on Lucknow Street. They had a good selection, everything was fresh, and best of all they delivered! We actually went there for D-Jo's birthday last year, and it was our go-to spot for celebratory take out. Alas, they closed about a year ago.

* The next great find was this little hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place just off Paxton called Pho Viet Nam. Their pho and spring rolls were excellent, and they were also the only Vietnamese place we'd found which served banh mi, the fantastic Vietnamese sandwiches. It was right on the route I'd take from work to home when the highway was backed up, and I found myself taking that route more and more, calling D-Jo and suggesting banh mi for dinner, a suggestion she rarely vetoed.

Then one day I drove by and the doors were locked and there was a big notice on the window that they had been closed for health department violations. Whoops.

We can still get really good Vietnamese at The Garden and great pho at Golden Gate in the Broad Street Market, but we are, sadly, banh mi-less.

* Right next to the Garden on Reilly Street was Cedar's Lebanese, above the used bookstore. It was a little pricey, but the food was authentic and delicious and it was walking distance from our house. A few months ago it closed, though I have since heard that it is re-opening on the West Shore. Too far to walk to, though.

* About six months ago another one of my culinary prayers was answered as the Al Madina Halal Grocery in Steelton started selling prepared foods. This quickly became our work lunch spot of choice, as I was glad to drive up from Middletown for fantastic shwarma, hummus, and fool. It was a good decision for Al Madina, since I started picking up things like olive oil, pita, and feta cheese every time I stopped in for lunch or dinner. It only took a few months, though, for the take-out part of the market to close up shop.

* Recently a post went up on Harrisburg Nightlife mentioning that it looked like Jackie Blue might be undergoing an ownership change. It eventually came out that yes, it was closing, to be replaced by an "alternative bistro," possibly serving fondue.

I loved Jackie Blue. Once again, being within walking distance of our house (and those of you interested in stalking me ought to have triangulated my position by now) helps, but every time I went there (Except the last time -- more on that in a second) it was great. Great food, excellent service, fantastic atmosphere. I took business associates from Montreal there and they were impressed as well, which made me feel a swell of pride for my little city. Heck, I went over there on Super Bowl Sunday to drink a couple of beers and take advantage of the giant HDTV behind the bar.

Our last visit was a different story -- after waiting for 15 minutes to be seated in a mostly-empty restaurant, we were seating next to the window, and as the bitter cold streamed in we noticed that everyone in the restaurant was freezing and TPTB appeared to be unable to remedy the situation. Undeterred (and late for our movie) we ordered our entrees, and I ordered a glass of house red wine.

A long while later, our food arrived, and on each of our plates the main item (my steak, D-Jo's chicken) was not hot. All the sides were, but the meats were lukewarm, telling me that they had come out early and sat on the counter while everything else was cooking. Disappointing, but not as disappointing as the fact that, when my food arrived, our server informed us that they were out of red wine.

Out of red wine? In a restaurant, at 8:00 PM on a Friday? I was too shocked to suggest he go behind the bar and grab another bottle and open it, but really I shouldn't have had to figure that out. We finished out meals and headed out, a bad taste in our mouths both figuratively and literally. I hope to get back there one more time before they close so I can leave with a positive memory.

* The last straw was last week. Over the last six months we've been driving out to Ephrata every few weeks to eat at the Nav Jiwan Tea Room at the Ten Thousand Villages store. It's a long haul, but the draw has always been that every week they featured the cuisine of a different country. It was amazing -- you'd go there one week for great Indonesian food, and you could go back a few weeks later for Ethiopian, or Malian, or Ecuadorean. It was all good, very authentic, and reasonably priced, and it was a great treat to have, say, Thai food, and have it be as spicy and flavorful as it is supposed to be.

I logged on last week to see what the upcoming countries were, and found this message:

The Nav Jiwan Tea Room will be closed from Monday, March 19, 2007, through mid-spring. Following this period of renovation and restructuring, it will re-open with a new format, offering fair trade coffees and teas and light fare.

I'm sure it'll be good, but I won't be driving nearly an hour each way for tea and finger foods.

So that's six special restaurants in under two years. We still have a handful of favorites: Mangia Qui/Suba, the first restaurant we ate at in Harrrisburg; Bayou, the current walk-to favorite; the Middle Eastern trio of Skewers, 2nd Street Kabob, and La Kasbah; and all the great places (Nonna's, Golden Gate, Curry In a Hurry, Corner Rotisserie) at the market. But given our history and the apparent fickleness (or uncomfortableness with unfamiliarity) of the dining community here, I fear for all of them.

Somebody Invent This! Quick!

So this guy goes on a little mini-rant about all of the special, limited-time candy bars on the market, and then wonders where this trend will lead. And I'm reading along, and laughing, and then so help me, I get to the Snickers Bacon Bar and I think, "hey, that might actually be pretty tasty."



It reminds me of the time I decided, at 1:00 AM, that what I really needed was a Coke Slurpee and a king size Snickers bar (you might not be surprised to learn I was extremely high at the time). So I walked to the 7-11 -- I remember it being the middle of the winter, but it may not have been -- and got those two things, and you know what? They were great. They had the perfect combination of sweet and salty, cold and warm, crunchy and smooth. It was the apotheosis of contrasting foods, and I reveled in it. Even as I was eating it I knew that it was actually disgusting, and I would look back on this moment and wonder what I was doing, but at the time it was the greatest thing ever.

Looking back now, I think the only thing that would have made it any better would have been if the Snickers bar had had bacon in it.

Joe Beef!

Tonight my co-worker Dean and I had dinner at Joe Beef, a Montreal restaurant which certainly lived up to its name. That web page doesn't really say anything about the place -- if you're interested, check out what the folks at eGullet have to say.

The room is very small, only 26 seats, and the two-tops along one wall are crammed in so closely that the beyond-adorable servers have to move the table in order for you to get to the banquette seating. (I don't usually go on and on about the attactiveness of random women but this woman was seriously cute). The seating arrangement fostered a sense of community that I don't usually care for when I'm eating, but it turned out to be very comfortable. Many of the diners seemed to know each other as well as the waitstaff -- since we went on a Wednesday I'm guessing it was mostly regulars, though the room was full, and we only got a reservation due to a last-minute cancellation.

There were lots of things on the menus which sounded very tasty -- filet mignon, trout on a bed of lentils, roast guinea hen, Dover sole, mussel soup. They have a huge wine list including several wines by the glass. We started with a half-dozen oysters on the half shell -- a few from British Columbia and a few from Price Edward Island -- before moving on to the main course.

After mulling over the guinea hen as well as the "Pot Pie" with boudin sausage, we decided to split the cote du boeuf, which was a rib steak. Actually it was more like an entire rib roast cut into steak-sized pieces -- there must have been 2 lbs. of beef, plus a giant rib bone. Seriously, this thing was huge. I'm planning to bring the bone home and make my dogs the happiest dogs in the world, and I figure that if Montreal gets snowed in over the next few days Dean and I will be able to survive for at least a week on the leftovers.



In addition to being large, though, the steak was great -- tender, juicy, and well-prepared in a horseradish wine jus with greated cheese on top. The Swiss chard tart seemed almost unnecessary in the face of so much steak.

As we were getting our coats, one of the owners (Fred) came out, introduced himself, and thanked us for coming. It's the sort of thing you might expect from a brand-new restaurant, but for him to be doing it two years in is a nice touch. All in all it was a very nice meal in a great atmosphere and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who's in Montreal and looking for a big, hearty meal.

Montreal

I just flew into Montreal, and boy are my arms cold! I actually landed last night, when it was a balmy 3 degrees Fahrenheit (which converts to minus JESUS IS IT COLD celsius) and after locating my rental car I drove to the hotel our business hosts had procured for us.

I was in Montreal to train the Montreal fire department in the use of our saws. More accurately, I was there to train the trainers, the eight guys who will eventually teach the 2,200 firefighters. Even more accurately, I was there to stand next to the guys who actually do the training, and look all official and vice-presidential and representative-of-the-companyish. So it's a lot of standing around in the cold or sitting in a conference room.

In fact, it's a pretty big deal. Montreal is the first big "get" of my Cutters Edge career so I'm very excited. We'll have one of our saws on each of their trucks, and it's very important that the guys who use the saws know what they're doing. Hence the trek to the frozen tundra.

Once I had parked my Le PT Cruiser, I made my way into the hotel, which is actually a B&B, A l'Addresse du Centreville. It's a very nice, clean spot that I would certainly recommend to any visitors to Montreal. Nice bedrooms, shared breakfast, close to Rue St. Denis and downtown Montreal. We ventured out in the bitter cold and found our way to Les 3 Brasseurs, a brewpub where I dined on a sumptuous choucroute:



A perfect way to celebrate the Year Of The Pig, I thought.

The details of the day would bore you, so suffice it to say it wasn't as cold as it had been, the pompiers were very enthusiastic, and tomorrow we'll be cutting holes in the roof of an abandoned house. Tonight we dodged bundled up Habs fans on their way to the Bell Center to eat at what is, apparently, a Montreal institution, Bar-B-Barn. The menu options run the gamut from chicken to ribs. I had the combo.

What Is An Isomalt Teardrop?

I've been getting a bunch of hits from search engines on the phrase "isomalt teardrop," ever since I used it in my recap of the Top Chef finale. In fact, I'm one of only four Google hits on that phrase. But, since I obviously have something screwed up in my Blogger settings, when people click on the search result, they come to the main Dilettante's Dilemma page instead of the post about Top Chef. So, since I am all about customer service, here is a link to that post.

Enjoy! And hey, if anyone can tell me how to change my settings so that Google spiders the actual post page instead of the index page, I would appreciate it.

Two Latin Phrases In One Post! Deep!

Snickers is going to get so much play out of their decision to pull their Super Bowl ad, it almost makes me think it was part of a conscious plan.

The ad features two mechanics kissing, Lady And The Tramp-style, after one of them pulls a Snickers bar out of his pocket and jams the entire thing in his mouth:



After a negative reaction from groups like GLAAD and The Human Rights Campaign, Snickers has agreed to pull the ad from the air and from its website. Of course, in doing so, they still managed to frame the debate and point out how successful the ad was:

"Feedback from our target consumers has been positive. In addition, many media and website commentators of this year's Super Bowl commercial line-up ranked the commercial among this year's top ten best. USA Today ranked it 9 of its top ten picks."

Pulling the ad mollifies those who found it offensive, but it does something else as well -- it also allows them to keep their ad, and by extension their brand, in the news cycle longer, at no cost to them. While they're pulling the ad from the air and their website, they haven't pulled it from YouTube, where it has received over a million hits. I don't know how much an ad buy that brings in a million viewers costs, but it has to be more than what it costs to post something on YouTube (which is, as far as I know, nothing).

There are also, predictably, hundreds of comments about the ad. Also predictably, most embody the race-to-the-bottom mentality seen in most online commenting arenas, with ad hominem attacks and invective being hurled every way. Some people are upset at the ad because it's homophobic, others are upset at the people who are upset, other are upset at the company for pulling the ad, etc etc blah blah blah ad infinitum.

This has all the earmarks of something that's going to get more than a cursory mention in the media -- I envision Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly talking about this at length today, for example -- which means even more free publicity for Snickers.

So you've got the ad generating its own heat for free. You've got some people satisfied that the company reacted positively to complaints of intolerance. You've got other people using that response as another plank in their war against tolerance. You've got pundits,entertainment "reporters" and bloggers (myself including) spilling tons of digital ink on this "issue."

Everyone's happy, but no one is happier than Masterfoods. Did they do it on purpose? Big corporations and advertising agencies don't cynically exploit controversy to boost product familiarity, do they? Of course not. Now excuse me while I go grab a Snickers bar, register some domains at GoDaddy.com, and watch a few episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Dubai, Day One

My plane landed about 10 PM last night, as I basically spent all of Thursday traveling. I left Harrisburg at 8 PM on Wednesday, got to Frankfurt around noon, and now here I am. It was a remarkably uneventful series of flights -- the IAD-FRA plane was full, but a seat in United Economy Plus and a Lunesta made that bearable, and the FRA-DXB flight was empty enough that I was able to commandeer an entire five-seat row and stretch out a bit.

As a result I landed feeling better than I was expecting to. Plus, it was a breeze navigating the airport, I found a place to change money and a taxi with no problem, and within an hour of landing I was settled into my hotel room on the 19th floor of a hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road, waiting for room service so I could have a bite to eat and then go to bed:



This was a much better room service option than the typical burger and a salad that I get in American hotels.

I haven't been outside to explore yet, but we have no business stuff to do today so I hope to get over to the "old" part of town and take a ride in an abra on Dubai Creek. i figure I have 5 or 6 hours before the jetlag hits so I better make the most of it.

Great Coffee...For Me To POOP On

I love food, and I love gimmicks, so it stands to reason that I like food-related gimmicks. Hot dog on a stick? Totally. dessicated creme brulee? Bring it on. pizza with cheese in the crust? Uh, OK.

But I recently stumbled across a product that crosses a line that I didn't even know existed. Just for future reference, let me say this now: please do not serve me any food which was digested by another mammal at any stage of its development.

I'm speaking, of course, of kopi luwak, or civet coffee. For those who may not know just how this product is made, let's follow the life cycle of this particular coffee:

1. Grown on trees
2. Eaten by civets
3. Partially digested and then expelled by civets
4. Beans harvested by people
5. (Presumably) washed
6. Roasted, ground, and brewed

Mmm, that's good poop-coffee! I think I'll pass. If I'm looking for a foodstuff that's spent any time in a digestive system, I'll go with chicha, which is spit out before swallowing and which will presumably get you drunk enough that you can forget that fact.

Last Night's Dinner: Braciole

Traditional meals on New Year's Day seem to be, well, traditional. For many years we held with the tradition of eating black-eyed peas to give us good fortune in the coming year, even though I don't like them. Enough Crystal hot sauce made them palatable, but only barely.

We've run through some pretty lean years recently, what with the job-losing and forced moves and fire and whatnot, but all along we kept eating the black-eyed peas, thinking "geez, what would have happened if we weren't eating them?" Last year, though, we decided to forego them -- I doubt it was a conscious decision as much as a decision born of laziness and my desire to not get off the couch and drive to the store to get them -- and try something else.

We had had braciole for the first time a few weeks before, when we had Thanksgiving with D-Jo's Aunt Dee and Uncle Ernie and family. Ernie does the full-on Italian thing in the kitchen, and we arrived to a giant pot bubbling on the stove containing various meats cooking in homemade sauce (or, as he calls it, gravy). It was like that scene in the Godfather when Clemenza is cooking after they've gone to the mattresses:

"Here, learn something... you may have to feed fifty guys some day. You start with olive oil...fry some garlic,see. And then fry some sausage...or meatballs if you like...then you throw in the tomatoes, the tomato paste...some basil; and a little red wine...that's my trick."

It was like that, with enough food for fifty to feed the 15 of us. The centerpiece of the meal was a braciole, a flank steak wrapped up with a filling of bread crumbs, garlic, and herbs. It was fantastic.

(The amazing thing about this Thanksgiving was that, a few ho